The band contacted Jett after seeing the video, and she would go on to record a live album and perform shows with the surviving members of the Gits in 1995 under the moniker Evil Stig (“Gits Live” spelled backward). Jett claims that MTV would not play the dedication at the end of the video for reasons unknown. The video - which was dedicated to Zapata and sought to raise awareness of her then-unsolved murder - shows an actress being pursued by a stalker onto a subway train, where she fends off an attack. It began when Jett wrote and recorded the song “Go Home,” for her 1994 album with the Blackhearts, Pure and Simple. Years before Jett stepped into Cobain’s considerable shoes at the Rock Hall of Fame, she filled in for the Gits. There’s Mia’s warm, big, charming face, and the words: ‘Damn! Damn! Damn!’” Posters asking for information adorn the wall of the Comet Tavern … on some street corners, you can see the fliers made by friends a long time ago. “Talking about Kurt with people in clubs and cafes, I actually feel his presence less than Zapata’s. “Partly because it was a murder, Zapata’s death genuinely transformed the smaller, more local scene in which she was a leading light,” NPR music critic Ann Powers wrote in a 1994 Village Voice story. “If it was one of their friends, you know, or an acquaintance, or an audience member, you just didn’t know.” “You can imagine, this vibe that sort of came over Seattle when it happened - people just not knowing ,” Gits friend and collaborator Joan Jett says. The horrific and violent nature of Zapata’s death added to the dark cloud hanging over the scene, with multiple people in the music community that Zapata was part of falling under suspicion. The case went unsolved for nearly a decade until Mezquia’s arrest in 2003. Her life story and murder have been the subject of episodes of the Investigation Discovery Channel series Dead of Night, Unsolved Mysteries, 48 Hours, and the documentary The Gits. on a deserted street less than two miles away from the bar. She had spent most of the night before at the Comet Tavern, then went to a friend’s apartment in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood before leaving on foot at around 2 a.m. On July 7th, 1993, Zapata, the lead singer of the punk band the Gits, was raped and murdered. Mezquia’s death marks an end to one of the darkest and most tragic episodes in rock music. He was a profoundly distracting influence on my life for the last 25 years. “He affected a lot of people in my life in a very negative way for many years. “I was actually thinking for years how I would react when he was released,” Moriarty tells Rolling Stone. “Rather than focusing on her death, we prefer to remember her friendship, talent, humor, and the incredible art and music she left to the world.” (Via Moriarty, Zapata’s family declined to comment for this story.) She was a beloved friend, a gifted songwriter, musician, visual artist, and performer,” her three surviving bandmates - guitarist Andy Kessler, bassist Matt Dresdner, and drummer Steve Moriarty - said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Mia Zapata was an extraordinary human being. Mezquia had been serving a 36-year sentence, which was overturned in August 2005, then subsequently reinstated by the state Court of Appeals in January 2009. His death was confirmed by the Washington State Department of Corrections, which declined to provide a cause of death, citing state privacy laws. Jesus Mezquia, the man convicted of murdering Seattle musician Mia Zapata, died in a hospital in Pierce County, Washington, on January 21st.
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